Freedom House today announced that Michael Chertoff, a former Secretary of Homeland Security and former U.S. Court of Appeals judge, and Executive Chairman of the Chertoff Group, will become the new chairman of their Board of Trustees.

In response to reports published by Novaya Gazeta that a survivor of the anti-LGBT crackdown in Chechnya, Zelimkhan Akhmadov, was abducted in St. Petersburg by police as well as by family members, Freedom House issued a statement.

The decision to withdrawn the United States from the United Nations Human Rights Council is counterproductive for U.S. security and foreign policy and will make it more difficult to advance human rights and aid victims of abuse.